Read Online Brilliant by Roddy Doyle - Free Book Online Page A

their parents always called it. Farther east, there was Dublin Bay and the sea. The River Liffey flowed east too. It was beside them, somewhere near, to their left—although Gloria couldn’t see or hear it. They wouldn’t see the river till they got to town, but Gloria didn’t know if they’d have to go that far before they caught up with the Black Dog. She didn’t know—she just ran.
    Raymond was the first to run off the sloping road and onto the N4. “This is great,” he thought. “I’m doing something.” He was chasing the Dog. He wasn’t sure why, exactly. It wasn’t as clear as that. He just knew that the Dog had the funny bone. He couldn’t see the bone sticking out of the Dog’s mouth, and he hadn’t seen it earlier, when the Dog had climbed out of the cloud.
    But, for now, that didn’t matter. He was chasing the Dog. He was saving his Uncle Ben.
    There were cars here, all going in the same direction as Gloria, Raymond, and Ernie. They were running on the hard shoulder—that was what the side of the road was called. The car lights lit the Dog ahead of them. They hadn’t been running for long, so Gloria had plenty of breath for talking.
    â€œWhy’s it called the hard shoulder?”
    She asked Ernie, because he was the oldest.
    â€œHaven’t a clue,” said Ernie. “’Cos it’s hard, I suppose.”
    â€œMaybe it’s called that because you’d break your shoulder if you fell on it.”
    â€œNice one,” said Ernie.
    Raymond was well ahead of them now.
    â€œHurry up!” he shouted back.
    â€œWhat’s his problem?” said Ernie.
    â€œHe’s right,” said Gloria. “Come on.”
    Raymond could hear his sister and Ernie catching up. He didn’t want to be by himself when he caught up with the Dog. But he wasn’t scared—not really.
    â€œSorry, Rayzer.”
    It was Gloria beside him, puffing from the effort. Ernie was beside him too. But he wasn’t moving his arms or feet. He was standing straight, like a statue, but rolling along beside them.
    â€œAre they skates?” Raymond asked, and he pointed at Ernie’s shiny shoes.
    â€œNot at all,” said Ernie. “I just keep forgettin’ I can do this.”
    â€œDo what, Ernie?”
    â€œDunno,” said Ernie. “I suppose you’d call it glidin’.”
    â€œDeadly.”
    â€œYeah,” said Ernie. “One of the perks of the job.”
    â€œCan you carry me?”
    â€œI can, yeah,” said Ernie. “But I won’t.”
    They stopped talking then. They weren’t tired yet—not nearly—but talking took too much breath and energy. And the passing traffic was hard work too. The cars and trucks cut through the air and sent invisible waves that shoved right against them and nearly pushed them off the hard shoulder. Paper flew around them, and empty plastic bottles bounced between their feet. But it didn’t stop or slow them down.
    They didn’t speak. They kept going and they kept up with the Dog. Small stones flew from under car wheels and shot past, low, sometimes whacking their shoes and trouser legs. But it was good, Raymond and Gloria decided, although they didn’t say it to each other. The stones, the bottles, and the trucks—they were all trying to slow them down, to stop them. But they couldn’t, because Gloria and Raymond wouldn’t let them. They were fighting, and winning. A sharp little stone nipped Gloria’s ankle, but she didn’t care. She was doing this for her Uncle Ben. A stinging ankle didn’t matter.
    Sometimes they seemed to be catching up, even though they were getting a bit tired now and Ernie had forgotten that he could glide. His shiny vampire shoes were a bit big for himand they were slapping the road as he ran. Sometimes the Dog seemed to be getting away, but they could still hear him—his